A Contrastive Analysis Between

English and Kurdish Languages In

Regard to Grammatical Gender

By

Dana Kadir

SUPERVISED BY

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DR. PAULIN G. DJITE

University Of Western Sydney

Sydney/Australia

2005

1
 INTRODUCTION

The major focus of this research is the investigation of the contrast between the

English language and the Kurdish language in regard to Grammatical Gender. In my

research, I will include the following, such as the aim, the purpose of the research,

research questions, the definition of some terms, background of the literature that I

have read, and discuss the differences. The methodology that I have used in my

research, analyse the data and use quantitive research method. Finally, the results and

the findings, and the conclusion of the research.

AIMS:

The major focus of this research is the investigation of the use of grammatical gender

between the English and the Kurdish languages. Which one of the two languages does

use more grammatical gender than the other one?

THE PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH

The purpose of my research is to find out the use of grammatical genders in both

languages. I believe different cultural backgrounds and different value systems

underlie the speakers’ linguistic performance (Beal, 1994, p.56).

Here the variation between English and Kurdish grammatical gender is very

significant in this research.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The variation between English and Kurdish grammatical gender is very significant in

this research. In addition, I asked the following questions to be answered.

2
What is grammar?

Grammar is a rule of a language which describes how its words are made up to form

sentences (Macquarie University, 1997, p. 387).

What is grammatical gender?

Grammatical genders, are also called (noun classes), they are classes of nouns which

are reflected in the behaviour of related words, every noun belongs to one of the

classes. For example, Indo-European languages have 1-3 noun classes that are called

grammatical genders instead of noun classes. Indo-European and other language

families are believed by its proponents to have human, animal and object as

grammatical genders. For example, in Spanish, the word (hijo) (son) is masculine and

(hija) daughter is feminine. It is called (natural gender) or logical gender

(Encyclopaedia, 2005, p.7).

What is gender?

Gender is “the grammar of some languages, certain words and forms belonging to a

specific gender. For example, masculine and feminine in French; masculine, feminine

and neuter in German; common and neuter in Dutch” (Macquarie University, 1997, p.

372).

“Gender is a grammatical term, and has no real connection with sex. It was only just

later that it became used as a synonym for sex (Arnie, 2003-4, p.4)

What is biological gender?

Biological gender refers to sex, such as male or female (Harry, 2000, p.1).

3
What does masculine mean?

Masculine, is related with maleness (Harry, 2000, p.3).

What are feminine genders?

Feminine is linked with femaleness. According to Gershaw men are seen as having

competence feature while women are more expressive than men (Gershaw, 1995,

p.1).

What is the effect of culture on masculine and feminine?

I believe that culture is the main factor that has an effect on masculine and feminine

genders in any language. For example, in German, nouns end in –ug which

corresponds to ing in English, are feminine, and car brand names are masculine.

Words end in –lein and –chen, their meanings are (smaller, younger) neuter.

Another example, the ancient Romans believed the Sun is masculine and the Moon is

feminine. French, Spanish and Italian have the same idea in regard to the Sun and the

Moon. For example, the Spanish word (luna) (moon). (Harry, 2000, p.4). But

Germans believe is vice versa about the Sun and the Moon (Encyclopaedia, 2005, p-

8).

I will talk about these variations in detail in the background of literature.

The differences between the Kurdish and English languages in terms of using

grammatical gender and which one of the two languages uses more grammatical

gender nouns than the other.

4
BACKGROUND OF LITERATURE

This literature under the name of Evolution of Gender in Indo-European Languages is

related to the topic, that I will analyse on the light of my other literature. Boroditsky

and Schmidt tested 84 common nouns in 14 Indo-European languages, plus English.

The nouns were chosen as the following, 20 words artefacts, 22 words natural objects,

20 words abstract ideas, and 22 words animals. (See appendix 1).

During the investigation of the research, I looked at the data that the researcher had

used, to make sure was accurate and valid, but unfortunately, the researcher of the

literature, did not speak the Kurdish language, so he used the following data and

identified them as an opposite grammatical gender nouns and changed masculine to

feminine and vice versa by mistake. (See appendix 1).

1. Knife is a masculine noun in Kurdish, it is not a feminine.

2. Pistol is masculine.

3. Hammer is a masculine noun in Kurdish but the researcher, even did not

mention it at all.

4. Key is a masculine.

5. Hat is a masculine noun and usually men wear them.

6. Gold is a feminine in Kurdish and it is not masculine.

7. Lion is a masculine noun in Kurdish but the researcher did not mention it

8. Fox is a feminine.

The researchers (Boroditsky and Schmidt) investigated whether “the grammatical

genders do in part reflect the properties of their referents” (Boroditsky and

5
 Schmidt, 2000, p.2) cited in Harry, 2000, p.1). Their comparison of genders

between Spanish and German produced a correlation coefficient of r = 0.21, p<

0.05. They termed this an “appreciable agreement”. But Harry the researcher and

author of this literature criticised this correlation and says this figure, a value of r

= 021 indicates disagreement rather than appreciable agreement. The two

languages are agreed more on the genders of animals (r = 039, p< 0.1), than on the

genders of artefacts which is (r = 010, p < .035)” (Harry, 2000, p.2).

The results of their study suggested the closer languages are in the family tree, the

more they agree on gender nouns the more grammatical gender nouns are used. For

example, Portuguese and Spanish languages show a coefficient of determination r2 =

.075 (Harry, 2000, p.2).

(R2): (“a measure of how well the independent variable in a simple linear regression

can explain changes in the dependent variable, its value is between zero (0) meaning

poor fit and (1) meaning perfect fit”) Clark, 1985, p.452).

English and Kurdish for example have a very low correlation because it is not from

the same sub family and in addition the English language is monolingual language.

Monolingual means “able to speak only one language and written in one language

only”. Whereas the Persian language and the Afghani (Dari/Pshtu) languages come

from the same sub family, which means the correlation is much higher, than the

correlation between the English and the Kurdish language. The more similar the

6
languages, the higher the correlation. The more distant the languages the lower the

correlation.

English native speakers thought the gender of nouns shows a correspondence with the

task of gender in other Indo-European languages. In order to test the prediction the

researches asked 20 native Americans of English speakers, (10 males and 10 females),

to assign a gender either masculine or feminine. The result suggests consistency

among them. Especially for words that have a natural relation with maleness and

power, for example, hammer, boulder, attack and war, or with femaleness and beauty,

for example, flower, happiness, love and butterfly. The average assignments of

genders by English speakers form a 15th population. It was compared to the 14 studied

languages to determine the degree of correlation. Look at appendix (2). The table

shows the values of r2 for each case (Harry, 2000, p.3-4).

The investigation suggested that the opinion of the native English speakers on gender

was very weak correlation with each of the 14 languages, except Kurdish, which can

attribute to statistical error. (Harry, 2000, p.3)

Error: “a random term included in regression and analysis of variance that represents

the effects of all factors other than those that have been specifically included in the

analysis”. (Clark, 1985, pg 446).

According to the research that suggested the Kurdish language uses more grammatical

nouns than the English language. I would like to compare the use of masculine and

feminine between the Kurdish and the English languages by finding the average use

7
for both languages in the light of the data appendix 1. in regard to the animal nouns.

First, I will define the meaning of average or mean.

Mean: “mean is the value that is equal to the sum of a list of numbers divided by the

number of numbers (same as average” (Clark, 1985, p.9, 449). The formula is used to

calculate the mean is M = E N

n
where M = Mean

E = sum of

n = number of items or scores

For example, in the sample.

1+4+5+6+7+8+9+10 = 50

The mean is 50 divided by 8; which is equal to 6.25 (Clark, 1985, p.9, 449).

In order to find out the average of the masculine is used in Kurdish and English, I will

use the previous formula. First I will find the average of the masculine nouns is used

in Kurdish.

Animal = 22 noun words.

M=E N=

= Sum of the masculine words/animals is used in Kurdish/ lang.

no of the total words (22)

-1= standards for masculine

Mean = 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1 = 10 = 0.45

22 22

The average masculine noun words are used in Kurdish.

8
Second, I will find the average of the masculine nouns is used in English.

Mean is M = E N

-1= standards for masculine the

Mean = 0.80 + 0.10 + 0.90 + 0.60 + 0.90 + 0.50 + 0.90 +0.20 + 0.30 + 0.80 +0.60

22

= 6.6 = 0.30 the average masculine noun words is used in English.

22

According to the above findings, the result suggested that the average masculine

grammatical noun words are used for animals in Kurdish language are higher than

English. The difference = Kurdish average words are used – English average words

are used; 0.45- 0.30 = 0.15

I will provide another example in order to prove the hypothesis. Here I will find the

average use of feminine noun words in both languages and I will compare the

differences in whole feminine noun words about all 84 noun words.

Mean is M = E N

Average feminine Kurdish nouns = 38 = 0.45

84

Average feminine English nouns = 15.95 = 0.19

84

The difference = 0.45 - 0.19 = 0.26

9
According to the above findings, the result suggested that the average feminine

grammatical noun words are used in artefacts, natural objects , abstract, ideas and

animals by the Kurdish language are higher than English.

Jheem suggests and supports my argument in this regard by saying that English has no

grammatical genders. A handful of the nouns have genders such as, buck, doe.etc…..

The gender relates to the noun’s meaning, not to its usage in a sentence. For example,

in French, every noun is either masculine or feminine for grammatical purpose. Old

English had three genders such as, masculine, feminine and neuter like most Indo-

European languages. By Chaucer’s time, grammatical gender had disappear, except

for personal pronoun in third person singular pronouns, for example, he, she and it,

with masculine and feminine genders used for persons or higher animals in colloquial

speech as in “Is n’t she a beauty? There are two reasons for departure of grammatical

gender nouns first, due to phonological change and second, other ways of marking

grammatical categories developed (Shufit, Jheem, 2003, p.1-2) ; (Encyclopaedia,

2005, p.6).

In the Northern group of Kurdish dialects and Mukri (e, i), the Izafe (suffix or prefix)

appears in a number of forms, for example a, a, e, i and the nominal oblique case

endings as e and i. An analysis of these forms into a clear system, with two

declensions according to grammatical gender. It is also Sorani dialect. Nouns and

adjectives usually follow singular nouns and they are connected to them by

components (e) or a, e that are usually used when a noun is masculine and (a) when

that noun is feminine, I will show some examples below:

10
 (i) Nouns ending in consonants.

(ii) Nouns ending in vowels for example, a,a,i,e, usually insert an euphonic (y)

before these endings.

In the north of the east of the Kurdish area, the Izafe (suffix or prefix) after plural

nouns appears as/-ed. Indo-European languages, genders include, feminine, masculine

and neuter. But English shows gender in third person singular only, but this is not the

case in Kurdish language. For example, pronoun of he, she, and it with the masculine

and feminine genders is used for people or higher animals (Encyclopaedia, 2005, p.6).

Nouns have the same gender in all the Kurdish dialects. There are some examples to

show masculine and feminine in Kurdish language.

Masculine: Note: the sound of s in Kurdish which corresponds to sh in English.

1. umar-life (age) emre wi

2. ar(d)-flour ard m

3. as-mill ji es te

4. is-work ise ta

5. axor-stable axore hespa

6. bira-brother bire te

7. bab-father bave xwe

8. cav-eye cave xwe

9. ciya (mountain sere ciye

10 dil-heart dile wi 3rd person

Feminine:

baz ar-town bajae Stambule

sav-night nive seve

11
The following feminine nouns are appear occasionally with masculine forms:

Ben, bihn-smell bena isane

Bihna junnete bihne qabra

The smell of your body smell’s of grave

De-mother diya wi diye-vi

(MacKenzie, 1954, p.14).

The research has done by Harry did not mention any thing about compound words in

any other 14 languages and English, except the use of grammatical genders. Here I

would like to conduct a research about the compound noun words in the Kurdish and

English languages, because the previous research question has not been dealt within

the previous studies, I have reviewed. I will compare the use of compound nouns in

the similar written texts. In the light of the above findings, I would like to ask the

following questions to conduct this research.

What is noun?

What are different types of nouns?

What is compound noun?

Are Kurdish and English compound noun words are used equally in the written texts,

such as, stories?

METHODOLOGY –DATA

I will define noun and compound nouns

What is noun?Nouns are names that are given to things such as, people, animals and

things. Nouns can be individual for example, a specific thing like my toy, Adelaide.

12
What are the different types of nouns?

There are many different types of nouns as the following:

Class, it refers to different groups of things like, snails, snakes. Abstract, it refers to

feelings, views, beliefs, ideas such as, beauty, ugly, loyalty. Feminine or masculine

for example (daughter, man, boy). Nouns, can be singular or plural (man-men,

woman-women, apple-apples, mouse-mice). Compound, can consist more than one

noun such as, (sisters-in-law, grandfather, dinning-room). Mass nouns are always

represented as singular such as, bread, sheep, fish, ice, water. Nominalisations, it

refers to noun forms of verbs such as teacher, discussion. Noun groups are groups of

words which build on a noun. They are significant language resources for forming up

descriptions. For example, Lisa’s toy is a bear. Lisa’s toy is a black fluffy bear. Here,

both sentences are classification statements but the second sentence uses a noun group

to describe the bear (Knapp, 1992, p.72-73).

What is compound noun?

Compound nouns, can consist more than one noun such as, sisters-in-law,

grandfather, grandmother, step-father, step-mother, dinning-room, (The Internet

Grammar of English, 1996-1998, p.1).

What is the gender of nouns?

The gender of nouns have a significant role in the grammar of some languages, for

example in French a masculine noun can just take the masculine form of an adjective,

but if the noun is feminine, it will take a distinct form of the same adjective, which is

feminine form. But the English language does not have grammatical gender, the

13
nouns are actually not masculine or feminine but they refer to male, or female or

animals. For example; the waiter is very prompt. The waitress is very prompt. The

differences in spelling reflect differences in sex (The Internet Grammar of English,

1996-1998, p.1).

Are Kurdish and English compound words are used equally in written texts,

such as, stories?

In order to find out the use of compound words between Kurdish and English

languages, I have read two stories one of them is Kurdish and the other one is English.

The Kurdish story consists of 66 pages. The name of the book is Gelawej was written

by Teiyfoor and the book was published in 1992. Gelawej is the name of the main

character in the story. I have summarised and translated the story into English. (See

appendix-3).

But I have not used the whole text; I have used 38 pages that consist of nearly128

paragraphs. I have used 30 pages from the English story which is equivalent to the

Kurdish story in terms of the data. There are approximately about 4800 words. This

story is equivalent to the English story that I have read, in regard to the length of the

text and the level of the language is involved. Both the texts are designed for

advanced language ability of the readers of the Kurdish and English languages.

The English story is consists of 85 pages. The name of the book is a journey to the

centre of the earth. The author of the novel is Jules Verne; the story was published in

1969. I have summarised the whole story (see appendix 4). I have also translated the

Kurdish compound noun words into English, (see appendix 5). But I have not used the

whole text; I have used 30 pages that consist of nearly 125 paragraphs.

14
The story is equivalent to the Kurdish story in terms of data. There are approximately

4800 words which are equivalent to the Kurdish story that I have read in regard to the

length of the text and the level of the language is involved. Both the texts are designed

for advanced language ability readers.

I have found 57 compound nouns from the Kurdish story and the same amount in the

English written text. I have found about 22 compound noun words in the English text,

which are less than the Kurdish compound nouns, (see appendix 6). I would like to

use the previous formula in order to find out the average words that have been used

for the same amount of the written text.

formula is used to calculate the mean is M = E N

where M = Mean

E = sum of

n = number of items or scores (Clark, 1985, p.9, 449).

In order to find out the average of the compound nouns used in Kurdish and English.

I will use the previous formula first, to find the average of the Kurdish nouns.

Words in the 38 pages are used = 4800 words.

Mean = Sum of the nouns are used in the Kurdish written text (57)

no of the total words (4800)

Mean = 57 = 0.011875 the average compound noun words used in Kurdish.

4800

15
To find out the average compound noun words are used in English, I use the

following formula.

mean is M = E N

Words on the 33 pages used are = 4800 words.

M=E N=

Mean = Sum of the nouns used in the English written text (22)

no of the total words (4800)

Mean = 22 = 0.004583 the average compound noun words used in English.

4800

I will also find the compound noun words are used per page in the Kurdish language.

Per page = 57 compound nouns = 1.5 compound noun words used per

38 pages

page for the written Kurdish text.

I will also find the compound noun words are used per page in English.

Per page = 22 compound nouns = 0.73 compound noun words used

30 pages

per page for the written English text.

16
According to the above findings, the result suggested that the average compound noun

words are used in Kurdish are higher than in English.

The difference = Kurdish average words are used – English average words are used;

0.011875- 0.004583 = 0.007292

Results and Findings

According to the above findings, the result suggested that the average

Compound noun words are used in Kurdish are higher than in English.

Because the Kurdish language is not a sub family of the English language and, the

compound noun words are used in the both languages are not equivalent and there is a

poor relationship between them.

The difference between the two languages = Kurdish average words used – English

average words used; 0.011875- 0.004583 = 0.007292

I will also found the compound noun words are used per page in the Kurdish language

are higher than the English language as well.

Per page = 57 compound nouns = 1.5 compound noun words used per

38 pages

page for the written Kurdish text.

I have also found the compound noun words are used per page in English are less than

in the Kurdish language.

Per page = 22 compound nouns = 0.73 the compound noun words are

30 pages

used per page in the written English text.

17
 Conclusion

Are Kurdish and English compound noun words are used equally in written texts,

such as, stories? No, the compound words are used in the similar texts and the length

of the stories in Kurdish and English languages are different. Because the average of

compound noun words are used per page in the Kurdish language is 1.5 but the

average of compound noun words are used per page in English is 0.73, which is less

than the compound noun words are used per page in Kurdish language, so the

hypothesis is true.

English and Kurdish for example have a very low correlation because they are not

from the same sub family; in addition the English language is monolingual language.

Where the Persian language and the Afghan (Dari/Pshtu) languages come from the

same sub family, which means the correlation is much higher, than the correlation

between the English and the Kurdish languages. The more similar the languages

towards one another, the higher the correlation. The more distant the languages the

lower the correlation. (Harry, 2000, p.5).

18
 Reference
Arnie, Jheem and Shufitz, 2003, Gender of Nouns, cited on

http://wordcraft.infopop.cc/eve/ubb/.x/a/tpc/f/932607094/m/3981012071 dated on

1/5/2005.

Beal, C, 1994, Keeping the peace: Across cultural comparison of questions and

requests in Australian English and French. Multilingua, 13, ½, pg. 35- 58.

Boroditsky, L., and Lauren A. Schmidt 2000, “sex syntax, and semantics”. In the

proceeding of the 22nd Annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Published

by Philadelphia, PA.

Clark J, 1985, Business statistics, published by Barron’s

Educational series, USA.

Colebrook, Sex and Gender, 2005, cited on this web site:

http://www.englit.ed.ac.uk/studying/undergrd/american_lit_2/Handouts/cmc_sex&

gen dated 02/05/05.

Colebrook, C. 2005, cited on this web site:

http://www.englit.ed.ac.uk/studying/undergrd/american_lit_2/Handouts/cmc_sex&

gen dated 02/05/05.

Gershaw D, 1995 A Line on Life Androggny: Masculine & Feminine, published by

Gershaw, cited on the 02/05/05 at

http://www3.azwestern.edu/psy/dgershaw/101/androggny.htm

19
Harry F., 2000, Evolution of Gender in Indo-European languages, Published by

Indiana University Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition, Bloomington

USA.8.

Macquarie University, 1997, Australia Learners Dictionary, Published by, National

centre for English Language Teaching and Research, Macquarie University Sydney.

MacKenzie, D., 1954, Gender in Kurdish (1), BSOAS Vol XVI (pp.528-541), 1954.,

By D.N. MacKenzie.

Knapp, P. 1992, Literacy and Learning Program, Resource Book, Published by

Literacy and Learning Program, NSW Department of Education, Sydney-Australia.

Mills, C. 2002, Grammatical Gender in English and indo-European language,

published Mills. Cited at this wesite: http://www.linguistlist.org/nask-

ling/archive/most-recent/msg06769.html

http://encyclopedia.lockergnome.com/s/b/Grammactical_gender

Teiyfoor, 1992, Gelawej, Senaryo-Chirok, Published by Teiyfoor, Stockholm-

Sweeden.

20
The Internet Grammar of English, 1996-1998, The Gender of Nouns, Published by

The Internet Grammar of English cited on this webhttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-

grammar/nouns/xnoun5.htm dated on 1st May 2005.

Verne, J. A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, 1969, Published by Thomas Nelson

and Sons Ltd., Kenya.

21
A journey to the Centre of the Earth, By Jules Verne.

Professor Lidenbrock was a rock, stone and metal collector. He had many rock, stone

and metal collections from all over the world, some where as old 200 years old. He

had a passion for adventures and discovering new things. His nephew Axel was in his

early stages of manhood. He had great respect for his uncle who had taught him a

great deal. Professor Lidenbrock had set out one day to go on a journey to the centre

of the earth. He had set out to go on an adventure to a mountain called Snaefells,

which also was a volcano. They carried their journey to Snaefells very soon. The

Professors idea to take on this journey was from a man named Arne Saknussemm, but

was unsuccessful. So, professor Lidenbrock wanted to be the next person to try.

Professor Lidenbrock, Axel and their guider named Hans, set of on their journey to

the centre of the earth. It took them about three months to return back to Hamburg

their hometown (besides Hans who was from Iceland). On their way they climbed up

and down dangerous obstacles. When they made it in the volcano called Snaefells,

after several weeks on foot, they came across many situations of life and death mattes.

They had witnessed giant sea monsters, faced their some of their journey without any

food or water for a week, the rough path towards the centre of the earth was life

taking, yet the professor, Hans and Axel kept on going bravely. They came across a

sea which no man has ever seen before and they named the sea Lidenbrock Sea. They

also came across an island that they were the first to discover which they named after

Axel and named it Axel Island.

After this long journey they were on a path that would lead them out of the mountain

and back onto land. Without their knowledge they ended up climbing out of a

mountain in Italy! They were pushed up by the lava of the volcano. They were lucky

22
to be alive! They were tired, weak and hungry. They soon made it back to Hamburg

and farewelled Hans who looked after them a great deal. They soon were known for

their heroic events, and for their accomplishment of coming out alive after being to

the centre of the earth.

By Verne. J, 1969.

23
Gelawej

Gelwej is the name of the story was written by Teiyfoor. I would like to summarise

the story that I have read and looked at the Kurdish compound noun words. The story

was set in Sweden in 1992; the story is talking about the tragedy that Kurdish people

face in everyday in our homeland (Kurdistan). This story is an example of Kurdish

struggle and resistance against oppression that the Kurdish nation faces.

Gelawej is a woman, was married to Shemal and they were living in East of Kurdistan

(Iran). Gelawej was living with her mother in law and she had only one child, her

name was Triyfe, it means (Sun shine) in English. One day Gelawej’s (Shemal)

husband disappeared and nobody knew where he was? After a couple of years, she

did find out that her husband was a freedom fighter (Peshmerge) and he had joined

the Kurdish revolution. But the Iranian government knew where her husband was.

At the same time her brother in law (Heme) was a freedom fighter too.

Suddenly one day at about 2: am, some Iranian intelligent service and some solders

were raided their house and took the complete family, including, Gelawej, her

daughter (Tiriyfe) and her mother in law to jail. In the prison, they were separated

from each other and they were tortured very badly by secret police. While they were

in prison her brother in law Heme was killed in a fight with the government. The

Iranian secret police asked her for cooperation with the police; it was a condition for

their release. They were agreed to participate in order to be freed from prison.

After that, Gelawej sent a letter to her husband and asked him to come to the city with

his group of freedom fighters to rescue and them to the mountains or liberated areas.

But her husband Shemal could not come and asked his political organisation to

24
organise this operation. After some time they carried out the operation and took the

family out of the city.

While they were crossing the mountains at night in order to reach the liberated area

which was belong to the Kurdish freedom fighters. They were raided by Iranian

solders and her daughter Triyfe was shot dead.

When she arrived at the village. Her husband was still at about 5 hours far from the

village and it was a big war between the Kurdish freedom fighters and the

government, so again her husband could not come to see them. In the village at the

same house a girl was there and her father was a freedom fighter and he was killed

some time ago.

After a month of a fight between Kurdish freedom fighters and the government, she

was told by someone that her husband was wounded and got captured a life by Army.

But in reality he was injured but he was not became a prisoner of war. He was injured

so badly, they sent him to Germany for treatment.

Later on, she was told by the freedom fighters, that she had to leave the area due to

spread the war everywhere in Kurdish areas. So, while Gelawej was ready to leave the

house and the village towards crossing a border to another country, she was

approached by the six year old girl (Awat), and asked her to take her too. She was

agreed to take Awat and they went to Sweden as a refugee to the city of Stockholm.

Awat grew up and went to school and one day she brought back a letter from her

Kurdish friend at school about a Kurdish celebration for (Newroz). Newroz is the

beginning of the Kurdish New Year on 21st March in the year. She saw her husband’s

picture in the letter and she was so excited, she could not believe it. Her husband

25
(Shemal) was invited as a singer to participate in the celebration of Newroz (New

day).

Next, her husband was arrived in Stockholm, and Gelawej did not go to the party and

she said if he was a life, how come he did let me know what happened to him. But she

sent (Awat) with some Kurdish friends. At that night after the celebration, her

husband came to her place with some friends and found her and they met for the last

time.

Finally, after 2 months passed, someone was checking on their house, because her

husband was active politically. One day Gelawej was opening her letter box and

something got exploded and immediately killed her and Awat left alone again for the

second time without the love of her mum (Teifoor, 1992, 1-66).

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A list of compound noun words in the Kurdish language

Kurdish Compound Nouns Meaning in English

Noun+ Noun

roj be roj day by day day by day

ser u shwen place head and place

dil niygeran sad heart sad

agir dar spark fire tree

chaw chaw eye eye eye eye

dle u dwaiy hope heart and end

aram aram patience calm calm

ser ban roof head roof

twoe twoe layer layer layer

qoorim sax bastard son of bastard

resh balek mixed black mix

ser chopiy lead head or lead dance

sha bash pay money king good

shal laq torture limp leg

ser u chaw face head and eye

dele dew female devil female devil

dem u chaw face mouth and eye

mela jin Imam’s wife Imam woman

mekteb dar master of religion school tree

xrap kar bad person bad work

sere ta beginning head fever

bere bere bit by bit slowly slowly

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derman draw patient medicine given

jer bal under arm (arm pit) under arm

jer xan down stairs under-ground floor

kla u dar hat hat-have or tree

zamiy dil broken heart injured heart

hawar u esh pain shout and pain

jne u shalaq torture insult and limp leg

jan u zamek pain pain and a wound

kish u mat quiet quiet and calm

ser u klaw hat head and hat

char shew veil four food/shape

chaw der patrol man eye look

ser kar work head work

ser garden homeless/hopeless head neck

ser mazar cemetery on grave/head grave

dola u dol hill by hill hill and hill

Kurdish Compound Nouns Meaning in English

Noun+ Noun

shaxe u shax mountain mountain and mountain

chiya u chol mountain mountain and empty

seg bab your father is a dog dog father

demy le demy kissing mouth in mouth

kew u dolekan mountain and hills mountain and hills

shne baiyek wind breeze wind

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gool u giya grass and flower flower and grass

ser u chaw head head and eye

ga golke crawl cow crawl

shere koore lion boy lion boy

ser baskane over the hill over hills/on hills

bedem bawe in the wind mouth wind

dar tewin knitting equipment tree knit

shorb aw soup liquid water

pa we (u) pa walk foot by foot

ser chaw welcome on eye

sery leser head on head on

gergiy agir sorrowful liver fire

nan u shir milk and bread bread and milk

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A list of English Compound Words:

Noun + Noun

sunday iceland anything everyone

mantelpiece dinning room afternoon railway

bookshop downstairs nonsense fishermen

Something everything anyone island

horseback afternoon goodness islanders

goodbye luggage

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31
 REFERENCES

APPENDIX

1. Words Examined

2. Table: Coefficients of determination (r2) for the 14

languages, plus English monolinguals (‘Eng.’ Last

row).

3. Summarised of the Kurdish Story

(Gelawej by Teifoor, 1992, 1-66).

4. Summarised of the English Story

A journey to the Centre of the Earth, By Jules

Verne.

5. Data: A List of Kurdish Noun Compound

Words.

6. Data: A List of English Noun Compound

Words.

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